Service Learning and Culture Extravaganza!
Each trip taken by Guatemala Service Projects includes aspects of service, learning, and cultural enrichment. After travel consumed Day 1, we wasted no time incorporating all three on Day 2. With so much awesome content to share, we will break down this day into four parts!
October 31, Day 2, Part 1 — Delivering Chickens
We woke up ready for a full day of activity. The courtyard of Hotel Mayan Inn provided sights and sounds that were not noticeable in the dark of night when we arrived the evening before. Beautiful birds perched on bars at eye level. Songbirds flitted from tree to tree, some of them gargling tunes more melodic than I had ever heard. Oh, how wonderful to be back in Guatemala!
After a tasty breakfast, we piled into a van and headed out of town. Diego explained that the van would stop us short of our destination. It turned out that there were some scheduled road repairs and vehicular passage was not allowed, with violators being fined heavily. Not wanting to anger the authorities, we hoofed it the rest of the way.
Transporting the Chickens
We carried a bag containing a rooster and five hens as well as a separate bag of chicken feed. The chickens had been well fed shortly before being placed in the Santa-like pack, and their feet were tied together so that they would not injure themselves, others, or get away once let out of the bag. We were delivering them as part of our “10 Bucks a Cluck” program, where we gift egg-laying hens to families needing a nutritional / economic boost. It is our hope that the rooster will help create more chicks and that the hens lay eggs — some for chick production and others for the protein source. Whatever is produced in excess of what the family needs can be sold at market!
Today, one of our sponsored students was receiving chickens! The start of the path to her home was somewhat paved. Thankfully I brought my hiking shoes so that when we left the path I maintained proper footing. Without concrete under us, the wet earth was muddy in places, tree limbs and rocks made a bumpy terrain, and tree overgrowth sometimes slightly blocked our way. To think this was the path that residents took to travel anywhere, and that they traversed those paths every day, made me thankful for the unobstructed course I would travel each day to no matter where I need to go. I have it so easy!
A little ways after we left the concrete path, we saw a clearing behind some trees and Diego said ‘That is where we have to go.’ He went ahead so that he could point out any bumpy or unstable parts of the trail and so that he could capture our photo as we wound up and down and around the beaten path. Finally we saw the home.
Meeting the recipient
Karla is a 4th grade student that lives in rural Paquixic, Guatemala. She is an extremely bright girl, and her family is very thankful that a family in the US has supported her with a scholarship / sponsorship.
Karla lives with parents and extended family in a simple adobe home. They brought out whatever chairs they had — some wooden and some plastic. We were invited to sit as we were apprised of the back story to the family that lived there together.
While we witnessed the questions asked of the family ( in an attempt to know them better) I silently observed the interactions between the male head of household and the children playing at his side. There was love and tenderness in their playful exchanges. Karla’s mother looked at her husband with a loving eye. The elderly grandmother kneeling on the ground with her woven goods spread at her feet beamed with pride and contentment. There was a lot of happiness in that little adobe home off the beaten path — so much happiness, in fact, that it was difficult not to get emotional. Such strength and resolve and pride in their family!
It was a pleasure delivering chickens to them. Mike, Sarah, Tammi and I each took a turn removing a chicken from the bag and handing it to Karla before it was put in the coop. Diego asks each family scheduled to receive chickens to build a proper enclosure beforehand. He encourages them to use materials available. It is not important that the coop be fancy, only stable.
Check out this video: You will feel like you were there!
After all of the chickens were placed in their new home, we were treated to a demonstration of both a backstrap loom and a foot loom!
The “right” opportunity arose when I learned about a travel opportunity for adoptive families which would include volunteer work and cultural sightseeing. Being members of that team had a profound impact on me, Lillian and Andrew. Not only were we able to make a real connection to our son’s birthplace, but we met incredibly warm and generous people, all of whom we now consider to be a part of our “family.” In addition to the volunteer work I shared with the Team, I also was able to “give back” by performing as my alter ego, “Farfel the Clown” at a barbecue for children of The Backyard School. It will remain one the proudest and happiest memories of my life.